thebillshark

Could the stadium be built into City West instead? What sort of land restriction binds those crappy 15 year-old City West houses? I know it was all former public housing, but who actually owns the land under those homes now? Totally disagree Jake. I don't think those houses are crappy and I think they are still performing their function as affordable housing quite well.

Don't know anything about taxes, but you can buy stock in REITs just like any other stock. Some of them pay out really good dividends. I really don't know why they're not more popular given the returns, maybe they are riskier than I realize, but the stuff I have seems pretty stable over the past few years.

Wetterich on the type of public support that may be palatable:

This is a reminder that if you want your voice heard at the Over the Rhine Community Council you are free to join. Elections for the Board of Trustees will be held in June but you must sign up to be a member by the May meeting to vote in them (meeting is tomorrow, OTR Rec Center 1715 Republic, 6pm.) http://otrcommunitycouncil.org/2017-otrcc-board-of-trustees-nominations-are-in/ Some of these votes on various issues are decided by 10 to 20 votes so your input counts. Thanks.

^I always wonder what will happen to the soil that's stuck under strip mall parking lots for thirty or forty years or even longer. I haven't really read any case studies about reverting a parking lot back to farmland or natural habitat- and there's SO many parking lots everywhere.

My whole thing with these "walkable" developments in the burbs is...will you be able to walk to a part of the neighborhood that's NOT part of the development from there? It seems they're hemmed in by huge highway like roads and parking lots so someone would never leave a designated area. Kind of misses the point and panders to a buzzword.

Do you get a free malt with every UDF mention? :)

Here's my manifesto on development in OTR going forward: https://cincinnatiideas.com/2017/04/20/cincinnati-needs-people-vision-10000/

I've been mostly thinking of another scenario where a garage is built elsewhere enabling the development of the surface lot. Although that may be challenging once tenants are actually parking there.

Not even in the realm of possibility. Not how he rolls.

They demand to have the ability to set prices of items sold in the grocery store. If Anchor is officially on board, we can prematurely welcome a new Kroger store. I think Court Street would be MUCH better for a Kroger store. The pedestrian traffic could revitalize the empty storefronts. You're really not taking advantage of any spillover effects of having a grocery store anchor if it's in this Central Parkway location.

Good news! (although tentative as jmicha[/member] said.) My comment would be if the garage is going to be public that they increase the density around the site even further.

The Elm St. townhomes are what I was alluding to. They are very expensive (800k) yet get criticized all the time. It's like, if something can cost that much and still not satisfy, what chance does a development that's supposed to be affordable have? Is something this elusive a really a reason to hold back development? I think the main thing that makes the townhomes stick out is the repetition. It's something that might be seen on a street in New York but is actually quite rare in OTR where the rooflines vary between neighbors. But, I don't think they "ruin" OTR or even the block that they're on (an absurd notion actually.) who knows, maybe the repetition will be an interesting thing in and of itself for a pedestrian to look at for that span. As far as the Gantry goes, you may think it's ugly but I just think it's representative of the panel style of things that are being built right now. I'd rather have it than not. Also, a person in a historic apartment or house along that stretch should appreciate it too, because maybe their rent was kept in check because it soaks up demand for the neighborhood.

Walnut Hills needs 124 market rate units more than it needs an architectural landmark. These residents may be able to support businesses in an actual landmark down the street, the Paramount building. I am done with calling these new buildings ugly. I want the residents and sidewalk activity they can provide, and I feel that criticizing the architecture of these buildings (provided the basic site plan is "urban" rather than "suburban") is counterproductive. Architecture is subjective, upgrading it requires too many trade offs with things like affordability and density and even expensive buildings can be valued engineered or otherwise miss the mark. For me, it's the odd man out in terms of development goals. Even bland buildings can contribute to street life and urban activity (check out the people around U-Square) provided that you just go ahead and build them.

^yes that one is off Diehl/Shepherd Creek and buts up against Mt. Airy forest. If you look on google maps there is quite the "green crescent" to the north and west of the urban core. I think it's great and would like to see as much as possible of it preserved.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/05/04/exclusive-climbing-gym-looking-for-location-near.html?ana=fbk They should look at the old boys and girls club near Liberty and Central Parkway. Or, the base of the Terrace Plaza Hotel... maybe set something up on the blank wall where you could scale the outside of the building! That's be something for pedestrians to look at.

Yeah, and there's standing water a lot of times back there too. It would go a long way if they could solve that issue and apply some organization to the parking/garbage bin area of the brickstone building.

The OTRCC is currently working with CRC (recreation commission) and other stakeholders to plan the future of this space named "Imagination Alley".

Dream case scenario is that it's renovated into a museum/studio where the crew from WNKU can move in and begin broadcasting on another station.

There's been a "Welcome to Northside" sign on West Fork Road on the bridge right by the BP for years though.

Hmm... OK, but I hope they don't start going nuts building out office space. I really do think OTR works better as a residential neighborhood. An office doesn't need to be in a "human scale" neighborhood but it's extremely beneficial for a residence to be.

So... tear down the arena and build a new one (cost unknown) to host a first round weekend of an NCAA tournament, in 2022. No public money for this!!!!

Seems to me this building could develop its parking lot facing Elm Street and still have plenty of on site parking on the south side of the building.

Speaking of this general area it looks like there'd be room for another building in the Gateway Center site facing Court Street if they took down the strange vehicle ramp to the second floor plaza. I don't know what it's used for but I don't think there's additional parking up there.

^it needs improved headways and a higher average speed. It's fixable if the political will is there to fix it (or should I say the political obstruction isn't there to stop the fixes.) to do this It needs signal priority, one or two more blocks where it has dedicated lanes (that it can share with busses,) and some service schedule tweaks that would increase the vehicles in service during high demand times. And better response from CAF to service the vehicles.